Author: Geraint Parry

This past wednesday saw the first significant Wednesday test of the year- The forest-north shore-south shore loop where those with no climbing legs would soon be found out. A group of 25 rolled out and kept a steady tempo on old37 past Anderson road and onto the first of the days climbs. The tempo was hard but fair on this drag but as soon as the lip was reached the attacks blasted off with the Morris Trucking duo of Issac Neff and Ryan Knapp to the fore. I was promptly dropped and then punctured (unfortunately in that order) so Ren-jay Shei will take up the story-

The rest of the worlds went well…we got going pretty fast, regrouped at the bottom of
Bean Blossom, then got going again after the big hill on North Shore. There were tons of
attacks by Kehrberg, Neff, Knapp, Sherer, Chartier and some other people. Myron and
Isaiah were kind enough to tow me back up when I was feeling poopy. We kept a good pace
with an alarmingly fast attack by Kerhberg on South Shore. We regrouped after a
successful chase, and then Neff took off going up the hill on South Shore. I barely hung
on the back and then the pace eased back up a little at the top. When we got to
Robinson, there was a strong attack by Myron and he stayed away until just before the 1/2
mile to go mark, when he was caught. There were some more attacks, but nobody was sure
where the finish was, as we all have no sense of how far a 1/2 mile is. Kerhberg came
flying up the left side and I hopped on his wheel. He took the final sprint easily with
Sherer second and me third. Overall one heck of a ride. Great turnout, especially
considering the dreary weather.

Next week the forest loop riding up Beanblossom. Climbing legs required again!

Those many people who had some reservations about the policy of canceling Ceraland last Saturday certainly would have to agree with the master plan of Dan Daly as Sunday dawned very brightly for the first major rendez-vous of the Indiana Season. Tortuga was well represented throughout the events of the day with Dave Shirley starting our day with a strong showing in the Citizens event. Tom Saccone and I arrived 15 minutes before the start of the new Masters cat3/4 category event and on learning that there were over 40 participants I jumped straight in with the plan of warming up for the upcoming Cat3 event. However it was all pretty plain sailing and in the eventually bunch sprint I finished in 13th after getting my sprint baulked a couple of times in the last 200m. That’ll teach my for trying to start my sprint from about 25th position!
The Cat3 event then became immediately where I was joined by Myron Lewis and Jon Purvis. My plan was to keep a low profile and I successfully achieved my goal and aside from a few laps driving the bunch I succumbed to trashed legs with a lap to go. Jon Purvis started in quite the opposite manner and was a regular in the early salvos and was then ever present on the front of the group as Myron soloed up to the winning break with about 15minutes remaining. The break stayed away and Myron rewarded the teams’ hard work with a strong top ten position!
Riders Saccone, Heffner, Davis, Palmer. Millar and Brauner then lined up for the 40+ event. The brutal pace of the race was exemplified by the fact that no significantly sized breaks formed during an event that typically sees the win contested from a 5-10 man break. Tortuga members were active covering and being part of numerous abortive breaks so the team was pleased with its strong team-work that bodes well for the future.
The Tortugan daily highlight was certainly the performance of new-boy Chris Beck who featured in break of the day in the Cat4 event. Unusually for this event four riders were ‘up the road’ for a full 45mins of the 1hour race. In the finale pulling out a foot from his pedal cost Chris a potential victory but he still managed an excellent 3rd place. He will be rocking it in the higher categories in no time to be sure and is already proving to be an excellent addition to the team!
Remember to check out the Results section of the website to mull over the details of the day!

If you’d have told me that 24hrs after wandering down Kirkwood with a tasty (low-fat) ice-cream I’d be huddled shivering by the Sample Gates on Wednesday evening clad in full winter gear, I’d have said you were just crazy! However there I was and even the return of winter didn’t prevent a few brave souls from riding out to 446 for our weekly Wednesday hammer-fest! Messrs Brauner, Lewis, Parry, Garner and Camara were blown out to the 446 loop where we met up with Captain Saccone where we decided to do five laps of the circuit in ‘steady tempo’ formation. Anyway foolish enough to think that would happen clearly doesn’t know racing cyclists! Predictably the first time back onto 446 a slog-line (rather than a paceline) developed into the howling head-sidewind. At sometime during the ride we picked the hitherto MIA Jonathan Purvis and our little group battled some hard laps before we came slight undone during the 4th time into the wind due to some pressured pulls by Myron! No-one could muster the motivation for a final sprint but the points winners were certainly Myron and Mike due to the monster pulls they would take with the tailwind when I thought things were supposed to be easier! Next week- the Paragon loop, lets hope that spring finally appears!!